In Kodiak Island's remote villages off southwest deep red Alaska's coast, mail arrives by plane, taking at least two days to reach the archipelago's hub — if frequent storms haven't grounded air traffic.
This common Alaskan challenge explains why the state permits ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted for up to 10 days afterward, providing critical relief for voters in remote communities disconnected from the state's highway system and sometimes lacking polling locations, Politico reported Sunday.
But now, Alaskans across the political spectrum are alarmed by a pending Supreme Court ruling. A majority of justices appear poised to bar states from counting late-arriving ballots, a decision that would upend voting laws in Alaska and more than a dozen other states.
The ruling could potentially disenfranchise hundreds of voters in Kodiak's distant villages and thousands more across remote Alaska — and disrupt the election process in a state that could determine Senate control.
Jared Griffin, the independent mayor of Kodiak Island Borough, emphasized the necessity of current voting provisions. "This matters a lot in a place like Kodiak, because absentee voting, it's not a convenience here," he said. "It's going to really hurt those rural, remote voters."
Banning late-arriving ballots could disproportionately impact Alaska Natives, many living in rural villages already experiencing delays in receiving and returning ballots. This scenario creates bipartisan concerns about depressed turnout in the competitive Senate race between former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan —a contest potentially determining Senate control.
Democrats particularly object, accusing Republicans of pursuing changes that could disenfranchise a significant Democratic-leaning voting bloc. "It would be catastrophic. It's mean-spirited," Eric Croft, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, told Politico regarding potential effects on rural and Native voters.
"It would hurt participation in rural Alaska. And Mary Peltola's very strong in her Native communities, and in the community she comes from. So I think it will hurt her."
Though Trump won Alaska by 13 points in 2024, both political sides anticipate a competitive Senate race. Peltola leads Sullivan by 5 percentage points in an Alaska Survey Research poll from mid-March. National Democrats view Peltola as a major recruiting success, already investing over $3 million in her campaign.
Republicans are equally invested; Senate Leadership Fund pledged $15 million into the race — substantial for a state of 740,000 residents.
Peltola's Senate hopes depend on strong performance in the Bush region, the vast expanse of isolated villages from the Aleutian Islands to the North Slope cut off from state roads and containing much of Alaska's indigenous communities. Alaska Natives comprise roughly 20 percent of the state's electorate and represent a powerful political force. The Yup'ik candidate with deep Bethel roots helped secure her 2022 special-election upset to complete Rep. Don Young's House term. Peltola swept the vast majority of predominantly Native precincts in the following November election.
Many Alaska Natives rely on mail-in voting, viewing it as critical in rural areas experiencing lower voter turnout than urban regions. Late ballots arrive from throughout Alaska where four-fifths of communities lack road system connections. However, late ballots from rural and Native communities arrive at rates two-to-three-times higher than from urban and non-Native areas, according to a Native organizations' Supreme Court brief. In House District 38, which Peltola represented, nearly four-fifths of absentee ballots arrived after Election Day.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the five-business-day grace period in the Mississippi case brought by the Republican National Committee and backed by the Trump administration, none of those late ballots would be counted.
A summer ruling could upend Alaska's election administration just two months before primaries — a scenario prompting Republican Attorney General Stephen Cox to request "clear parameters for Alaska" from the court. Though Cox remained neutral, he stressed the "unique challenges" Alaskans face when volatile weather disrupts mail services and polling locations sometimes lack adequate staffing.
